Tow firm owner facing charges

Sunday

Dec 2, 2012 at 6:00 AMDec 2, 2012 at 6:34 AM

By Thomas Caywood TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

A towing company owner who previously made headlines for aggressive hooking of cars in Worcester is now facing criminal charges for car theft, forgery and allegedly trying to intimidate a witness in the case against him, according to police reports and court records.

In one case, Falcon Recovery owner Francis R. Whitenett Jr., 52, of Paxton, is alleged to have sold a Porsche 911 convertible that a friend brought to him in May to have repaired.

The friend, Michael P. O’Brien of Paxton, told police he was shocked when a Connecticut used-car dealer called him in June to say that he had bought the Porsche at auction and was looking for the spare set of keys, according to court documents.

In another case, an Auburn couple bought a used Volvo from Mr. Whitenett, who told them he would deliver the title after their $1,900 check cleared. The couple also traded in their Ford Taurus as part of the deal.

When the buyer, Mark S. Hume, called a few days later about the title to the Volvo, Mr. Whitenett told him that his wife had accidentally washed it with the laundry. Mr. Whitenett said he would apply for a new title from the state Registry of Motor Vehicles, according to the police report.

That was in late July.

Today the Volvo is still collecting dust in the Humes’ driveway without a title.

Paxton Police Detective Forrest Thorpe, who investigated the case, said Mr. Whitenett never applied for a new title according to his check of RMV records.

“It’s kind of an awkward situation where you have the goods being provided. It’s not like he didn’t give the car, but the victim never got the title,” said Detective Thorpe, who added that the car was not reported stolen.

Even so, Mr. Hume wasn’t able to register the Volvo without a title, and after a period of borrowing cars from friends, eventually had to lease a car to get around.

“It’s a giant paperweight in my driveway. You can’t even junk it without a title,” Mr. Hume said of the Volvo. “I’m anxious to get the money back because my daughter is getting married in May, and it’d be nice to have a couple thousand dollars for that.”

Mr. O’Brien, who declined to comment for this story, has his Porsche back now. But a Worcester auto broker that bought the sports car and then sold it at auction ended up out $12,800 after reimbursing the auction company that sold it to the Connecticut dealer.

“We’re still waiting to get the money back,” said George Palli of E.A. Brokers, which bought the car from a Leominster man who bought it from Mr. Whitenett. “I’ve never had a problem like this before. It was sold to us with what we thought was a signed title. We expected everything to be fine.”

After he got the call from the Connecticut dealer about the spare keys, Mr. O’Brien said he checked his files and found the title missing, according to the police report.

Detective Thorpe got copies of the title signatures and a bill of sale purporting to be to Mr. Whitenett from Mr. O’Brien, but the documents did not match the latter man’s handwriting or signature. Paxton police filed felony charges in late June on the Porsche case and in September on the Volvo case.

Mr. O’Brien later reported to police that a man in a pickup truck, not Mr. Whitenett, approached him at the end of his driveway one morning in August and told him, “it would be in his and his family’s best interest not to show up in court,” according to court records. Mr. Whitenett was charged with witness intimidation in September.

Several attempts to reach Mr. Whitenett through his Worcester lawyer, David L. Cataldo, were unsuccessful. Mr. Cataldo did not return calls seeking Mr. Whitenett’s version of the events at issue in the cases.

In all, Mr. Whitenett is charged with motor vehicle larceny, forgery of a document, false motor vehicle title, failure to deliver motor vehicle title to transferee and witness intimidation.

Mr. Whitenett’s lawyer worked out a plea agreement with prosecutors that would have dismissed some of the charges and put Mr. Whitenett on supervised probation for one year if he paid $12,800 in restitution to Mr. Palli and $2,400 to the Humes, but a judge in East Brookfield District Court rejected the proposed deal.

Mr. Whitenett is due back in court in January for a pretrial hearing.

Neither the Humes nor Mr. Palli have received any restitution, they said.

Two years ago, Mr. Whitenett’s Falcon Recovery towing company came under criticism from scores of people who complained after their cars were towed from the parking lot at the Madison Place strip mall in Worcester.

A Telegram & Gazette investigation at the time detailed Falcon’s use of an undercover spotter to call in tow trucks to remove cars one after another all day. The spotter summoned a nearby flatbed tow truck whenever a motorist parked in the lot but walked away to another place, often to the nearby RMV office.

The investigation also found that Falcon had been charging an illegal $10 “special equipment” fee beyond the $110 tow charge authorized by state law. The property owner severed its relationship with Falcon, and Mr. Whitenett pledged to state regulators that he would refund the improper fees collected.

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